The countdown to fall frost is on. By August, I’m ready to let go of my summer garden. After months of fighting groundhogs, smooshing squash bugs, and endless weeding, I’m okay with letting the warmer-weather residents of my garden drop their final fruit and go to seed. I’m not done with gardening, though. Instead, I’m dropping in new seeds to my raised beds, typically fast-growing greens that will fill my dinner plate until the winter solstice.
If you’ve never grown a fall garden, I’d highly recommend it. Many heat-intolerant vegetables and leafy greens grow beautifully this time of year with lower temps and fewer pests; some can even be covered with a hoop and plastic and overwintered through next spring, giving you extra produce throughout the cold winter months. I find that fall gardens are a bit more hands-off, and there’s a different kind of joy I get from stepping out to clip lettuce for dinner while wearing a sweater.
Here’s a few of the easy-growing crops I toss in my fall garden for picking through the season, all of which can be sown in-ground, raised beds, or porch planters.
Lettuce is a standard fall garden crop. Depending on the variety, you can have lettuce on your plate in under a month (less time for cut greens, more time for lettuce heads to develop).
Mizuna is one of my favorite salad greens because it grows so well and quickly this time of year. It’s ready within 40 days though you can often harvest 20 days after planting, and it’s even tolerant to light frosts.
Radishes do great in cool weather and are exceptionally fast growers, ready in about three to five weeks. I find that fall-grown radishes are a bit more mellow than earlier in the year (warm temperatures can ratchet up their bite).
Do you remember that whole “superfood” battle between kale and Swiss chard a few years back? You don’t have to choose a side because they’re both great and exceptionally cold tolerant. Plant ‘em both. My favorites are “Russian Red” kales and rainbow chards.
Tatsoi develops beautiful deep-green rosettes as it grows, which you can pick a few leaves from or harvest the entire head. I’ve had plants last through two weeks of 0° temps in my covered raised bed. I’m sold on planting it each fall and prefer it over spinach. It’s also a reliable self-seeder, meaning it does the work of replanting itself, and surprising me each fall.
Carrots taste and grow better this time of year, so I like to plant smaller varieties in autumn. My current favorite is the round “Parisian” variety — it’s frost-hardy, ready in 55 days, and incredibly cute.
Have a fall garden favorite or a question about planting your own? Leave a comment below!